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Maths Challenge 2017

November 13th saw the first Maths Challenge event for our students this year. Maths Challenge is one of our great enrichment programmes where students get to test their maths skills with fun and stretching puzzles, games and challenges. Throughout the year our students compete against others schools and colleges and have even been all the way to the national finals. Good luck with the year.

Here is was Franklin student and Maths Challenge Madeline Foster Smith had to say:

Despite a modicum of navigational issues and a haphazard attempt at spiritual relaxation, the Franklin Maths Challenge team - comprising Neelix Grey, Benjamin Croft, Ben Smith and Madeline Foster-Smith - arrived at the event in high spirits and ready for action. Armed with dedication, ambition and a litre of chocolate milk, there was no denying the day would be one to remember.

Each year, the UKMT/FMSP Senior Team Regional Maths Challenge provides Further Maths students with an incredible opportunity to expand their mathematical repertoire through some troublesome but highly mentally stimulating questions. There was a tangible sense of excitement and dread as, after weeks of preparation, teams from twenty one colleges and grammar schools across Lincolnshire gathered in the main hall of the Priory Academy LSST, in Lincoln, eagerly awaiting the first of the three trying rounds which formed the challenge.

First came the group round, in which each team had 40 minutes to collaboratively answer 10 questions of increasing difficulty. Next, a gruelling test of intuitive thinking and sheer determination as the team’s two pairs attempted to solve the same crossnumber, despite each pair being given only half of the questions and communication between the pairs being prohibited. Finally, our nemesis: the shuttle round. Here, the teams were once more split into pairs and given eight minutes to answer four questions, with one pair answering questions one and three and the other answering questions two and four. As the answer to each question was used in the next, quick thinking and some intensive mental maths were critical.

The Franklin team enjoyed each round and performed to a commendable level, particularly excelling in the crossnumber; overall, they succeeded in placing ninth out of twenty one, which was unanimously deemed a very pleasing achievement. Overall, the event proved beneficial to all team members, and we hold high hopes for future Franklin maths challenge teams.

The first image is the Maths Challenge Team ((Left to Right) Madeline Foster-Smith, Benjamin Croft, Neelix Grey and Ben Smith).

The second image is at Maths Challenge, with former students Sam Stenton (currently teaching Maths at Franklin) and Daniel Drayton (currently teaching Maths at the Priory Academy LSST), both bringing their respective teams to the challenge.